The report, Ambitious for All, said parents of disabled children found it almost impossible to access childcare, with the result that they were unable to work, study or train. Meanwhile, the children missed out on education and social benefits.
The report called for more inclusive approach and suggested that access to childcare was critical in enabling these families to escape poverty. Families with disabled children were particularly likely to have low incomes and to be headed by a lone parent, while they faced high living costs and high levels of unemployment. They suffered from shortage of appropriate childcare and prohibitive costs.
The report said that nurseries and childminders tended not to offer places to disabled or special needs children because they lacked resources for specialist training and equipment, and the buildings in which they provided services were also often not fully accessible. It called on central and local government and childcare partnerships to work together to ensure all childcare workers recieved suitable training.
The report urged the Government to extend help to families with childcare costs through the childcare tax credit element of Working Families Tax Credit by registering childcare in the home.
Stephen Burke, director of the Daycare Trust, said, 'Children with disabilities and special needs are clearly not yet sharing the benefits of the Government's National Childcare Strategy. We must be ambitious for all the children in the UK. At the moment too many families are facing multiple disadvantage and discrimination because of the lack of appropriate childcare.'
Francine Bates, chief executive of Contact a Family, which works with parents of children with disabilities and special needs, said, 'Specialist nurseries are few and far between and have long waiting lists. After-school clubs catering for children with disabilities are equally rare.' She said childminders who took on a child with disability were, 'in the words one parent, like gold dust'.
Th ereport costs Pounds5 from the Daycare Trust, 21 St George's Road, London SE1 6ES (020 7840 3350).
